Product DescriptionA memoir of astonishing power, savagery, and ashen lyricism, Storm of Steel illuminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, seen through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier. Young, tough, patriotic, but also disturbingly self-aware, Jünger exulted in the Great War, which he saw not just as a great national conflict but—more importantly—as a unique personal struggle. Leading raiding parties, defending trenches against murderous British incursions, simply enduring as shells tore his comrades apart, Jünger kept testing himself, braced for the death that will mark his failure.

Published shortly after the war’s end, Storm of Steel was a worldwide bestseller and can now be rediscovered through Michael Hofmann’s brilliant new translation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (76)

Stormtrooper ToThe End!
ERNST JUNGER. "STORM OF STEEL (IN STAHLGEWITTERN)". LONDON:PENGUIN BOOKS. 2004. xxiv +289 pp. translated by Michael Hoffmann
ERNST JUNGER who died at age 102 wrote this book of his soldier's experiences in the German army from 1914 to 1918based upon his wartime diaries. During his lifetime he revised and rewrote it numerous times to take advantage ofthe tastes of changes in his audiences. He writes as a warrior thrilled by the excitement of battle. He began as an underage soldier of fortune by joining the French Foreign Legion and then after deserting, was able to return to Germany to enlist immediately after Germany's mobilization in August 1914. He served through the war rising to officer ranks to command a storm trooper squad in many of the major battles on the Western Front. Wounded more than fourteen times and hospitalized but never reluctant about returning to battle, he writes in graphic terms of trench warfare in World War I. He takes great pride in writing of soldiering especially German.
JUNGER wrote his first edition of `Storm of Steel' in the early 1920's for a German audience of dispirited former German soldiers and militarists who were depressed by Germany's defeat in 1918 and by the humiliating (to them) terms of the Peace Treaty which forced Germany to bear full responsibility for the start of the War. While the rest of the world was mourning the ` lost generation'of young men killed in the war Junger spoke ofthe valour, honour and pride Germans should have in having fought valiantly against overwhelming odds. This was a book to make his audience and himself feel proud of their record as soldiers. Like Adolf Hitler who admired Junger, the writer felt the German defeat was as a result of the mistakes of politicians not the military. Junger openly spoke of his dislike of the democratic Wiemar governmentthat followed Germany's defeat and agreed with Hitler that Germany needed a strong fascist type government to make Germany strong again. The main aim of the book is to create a hero figure of the author himself
While other post World War I writers with war experience such as Robert Graveswrote about the `pointless wastefulness of battle' Junger wrote in praise of the honour and manliness of war andof theGerman soldier including himself. It is no surprise that Junger became an icon for the Nazis Partyand wrote articles for its propaganda machinery.
This is not to say that the book is not an enjoyable read given its vivid descriptions of life in the trenches and despite its lack of criticism of the war. Junger is clearly pro warrior,if not pro war, expressing the height of exhilaration when shooting an unsuspecting group of enemy as `game'. The visual images used by Junger give the reader the sense of being there with him on the battlefield as he shows us the trenches, the dugouts, the bombardments and the never ending results.His repeated theme is that soldiers are just doing their duty and doing their best of an unpleasant job. Junger never apologizes for his service, his courage, his sense of duty or his forthright action under fire.
This book stands in marked contrast to "All Quiet on the Western Front"writtenby his fellow German, Eric Maria Remarque and which deplored the futile nature of war.Of course most Germans criticized that writer because of his lack of a substantial war record and of course because he was a Jew.
For Junger the war was an exciting and exhilarating challenge to his manliness where his `eyes and ears are tensed to the maximum'Each foray into enemy lines raised the level of excitement for the author. Even death can not dull the excitement and it is described in clinical terms throughout the book-`his skull was smashed by a mortar bomb' . Junger's soldiers are like `Tigers' launching themselves against the enemy . War to Junger is a way of men testing their mettle and "interrupting the monotony of trench life. There's nothing worse for a soldier than boredom" . Junger's descriptions glamorize war and death when he describes the " smell of corpses oozed" from a building. War is a test of man's strength and resolve as Junger "threatens his men to use their last energy" . War and soldiering is placed on a pedestal and becomes sacred. "By the light of a flare, I saw steel helmet by steel helmet, blade by glinting blade; and I was overcome by a feeling of invulnerability. We might be crushed but surely we could not be conquered" . War could not involve emotions at least for the enemy.A ration party of British were shot point blank because it was " hardly possible to take prisoners in this inferno and how could we have brought them back through the barrage?"
Junger is a warrior writing about warriors and during a war " no soldier should be permitted to say the word `peace" . According to Junger even Nature accepted War for it was "pleasantly intact and yet the war had given it a suggestion of heroism and melancholy; its almost excessive blooming was even more radiant and narcotic than usual" . The author seems oblivious to thoughts of dying and suffering for the voices of those crying for help " were like the noise that frogs make in the grass after a rainstorm" .
But man, the soldier must prove himself through battle and when battle comes for Junger ` it was precisely an engagement like this that I'd been dreaming of during the longeurs of positional warfare" ."It took pluck to hold your head up when the bullets were pinging around" .The invincibility of the German soldier was "unstoppable" and "it was as though nothing could hurt them anymore" . The blood lust was up and the soldier who saw " a bloody mist in front of his eyes as he attacks doesn't want prisoners; he wants to kill" . The soldier in Junger's mind has absolution for whatever he does as "the state relieves us of our responsibility" . Above all the German soldier is never defeated for " everyone knew we would no longer win but we would stand firm" .This is a book of war experience downplaying the suffering of war in favour of exalting comradeship and praising the fallen for their help in regenerating the nation .
Thedetached and unemotional way in which Junger comments on the death around him fits the character of a man who in later years roamed the globe amassing a 40,000 Beatle and Insect collection. Above all the author is confident in his superiority over others and his status as a member of the master race. During the Second World War he was back in the army he loved so much and assigned to Paris which he had never seen during the previous war. There he lived in a grand hotel and when dining on lobster, while others starved, he wrote in his diary " In such times to eat and to eat well, gives one a sensation of power" .Is there any dispute to the opinion that this book is an ego-document, "a testimony to the author's search for his identity as a writer and as a man"?
Throughout his life and the revisions of his book Junger remained unapologetic for his views especially those of a strident nationalist. In the edition translated by Hoffmann we are spared the jingoistic final line of previous editions "Germany lives and shall never go under!".

Beware which edition you buy
This edition of Storm of Steel is a translation from 1929 based on the second edition of the book published in 1924. It is a much more nationalist and, some might say, fascist version than the last edition, which was published in 1961. The 1961 edition leaves one with a completely different impression about Juenger's experience than the 1924 edition. Specifically, one finds less reflection on what the war meant to Juenger in retrospect. Juenger penned a much more descriptive tale in 1961 than he did in 1924. His observations about the mysteriously enchanting nature of battle remain, but his overall style is much flatter. If a comprehensive study were available, it would be most illuminating to track the changes between the many editions of Storm of Steel. Alas, no such study currently exists.

Fortunately, a translation of the newer work is available. The 2003 Penguin edition translated by Michael Hoffman uses the 1961 edition as its source. His introduction also provides a detailed discussion of the problems of revision and translation, and I have used information from it to write this review. I recommend both English translations to anyone who wants to seriously study Ernst Juenger and his evolution of thought over 35 years of turbulent German history. However, if you are reading this book for a class, make sure you get the right one!

Carnage and luck.Order the translation you really want
I was pleasantly surprised by Storm of Steel, just as I was by that other WWI memoir Goodbye to All That.GtAT I read because I had enjoyed 'I, Claudius'.It was an engaging story, regardless of any political/social commentary.Similarly, SoS, though a slow burn through the first quarter or so, is ultimately engrossing, solely on its literary merits.But I can't say it's for everyone. There is enough of it quoted in the Washington Post review above for you to know for yourself.Here's another excerpt:

"Then the whistle of another shell high in the air.Everybody had that clutching feeling: 'It's coming over!'There was a terrific stupefying crash... the shell had burst in the midst of us...
"I picked myself up half-unconscious.The machine gun ammunition, set alight by the explosion, was burning in intense pink glow.It illumined the rising fumes of the shell-burst, in which there writhed a heap of blackened bodies and the shadowy forms of the survivors..."

I am not an action-movie junkie, nor an arm-chair general, but I cannot deny the excitement of Junger's narrative.Reading SoS, I was drawn into Junger's world and felt pangs of shame that I hadn't lived through these experiences, scared as I would be to go "over the top".Rather than being disillusioned like Robert Graves, Junger recognizes the senselessness of war, the value of peace and civilian life, but sees that, in that recognition, a category of human experience is lost: "In the cold light of reason, everything alike is a matter of expedience and sinks to the paltry and mean.It was our luck to live in the invisible rays of a feeling that filled the heart."

As he points out, some soldiers seem to have a special luck, and Junger comes across as something like a living action-hero, coming through danger after danger essentially unscathed, chomping on his cigar.Before one advance:"Three minutes before the attack, my batman beckoned to me, pointing to a full bottle...I took a long pull.It was as though I drank water.There was only the cigar wanting, the usual one for such occasions.Three times the match was blown out by the confusion of the air..."I don't think this was supposed to be humorous, but how can one not smile?At the end of the book, couped up in an infirmary with one of the Red Baron's men, Junger learns that he has received Germany's highest military award.The two injured men celebrate by hurdling a chair.

Initially, I was under the impression that Junger went on to support national socialism.But he did not, and in fact seems to have been loosely connected with the Stauffenberg bomb plot.Nevertheless, some other reviewers here seem to think that any book like Junger's--one that does not unequivocally denounce war--bears some responsibility.Perhaps.I'm not sure.It is inaccurate to say Junger was without compassion or remorse, and he both breaks down crying at one point and runs scared at another.But Junger was interested in honor, a value we not only largely reject today but for the most part, I believe, do not comprehend (I include myself here).This book was gross at times but made me retreat from judgement.

Other reviewers, apparently annoyed at not having a map with arrows to look at, criticize Junger as a war historian and soldier.This book is not a memoir of that type.

Also, I note some mention in other reviews of the translation.The copy I ordered and received is a grey paperback with images of steel treads and barbed wire on the cover.The translator's name is nowhere to be found.The publisher is, I believe, Amazon's in-house print-on-demand self-publishing service.This leads me to believe this is an older, out of print translation.The one by Michael Hofmann is praised by other reviewers, but when I compare chapter headings, I find that my chapter "Overture to the Somme Offensive" is translated by Hofmann as "Beginning of the Battle of the Somme".Take your pick.I'm content.

happy customer
The book was shipped on time and the condition as described. I would gladly use this seller again in the future.

From a Warrior's Viewpoint
The great fiction of our time is that mankind hates war.This book was written by a true warrior; one of those men for whom war is a natural element for war awakens in him his true nature.But the author was much more than a warrior; a well educated man who wrote several other books (philosophical in nature), who initially supported Hitler (for his revitilization of Germany) yet who withdrew his support when faced with the reality (even in mildly occupied France), Junger was one of those rare men one would love to meet and talk with for hours.

He chronicles his experiences in the trenches in WWI with a straighforwardness and clarity that allows one to experience, as much as possible, the war that hopefully will not be repeated.He describes the changing nature of war, where men are pitted against machines and where the arbritrary is natural.Junger revelled in the war and yet you cannot believe him a monster; he provides an honest description that was echoed by many veterans after the war but whose works have been shunted aside in favor of more politically correct views of that war.

A great read and one which can open the mind for anyone who is truely interested in human nature.
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Product DescriptionWritten and published in 1934, a year after Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Ernst Juenger's On Pain is an astonishing essay that announces the rise of a new metaphysics of pain in a totalitarian age. One of the most controversial authors of twentieth-century Germany, Juenger rejects the liberal values of liberty, security, ease, and comfort, and seeks instead the measure of man in the capacity to withstand pain and sacrifice. Juenger heralds the rise of a breed of men who--equipped with an unmatched ability to treat themselves and others in a cold and detached way--become one with new, terrorizing machines of death and destruction in human-guided torpedoes and manned airborne missiles, and whose "peculiarly cruel way of seeing," resembling the insensitive lens of a camera, anticipates the horrors of World War II. With a preface by Russell A. Berman and an introduction by translator David C. Durst, this remarkable essay not only provides valuable insights into the cult of courage and death in Nazi Germany, but also throws light on the ideology of terrorism today.

Early Praise for On Pain"With this superbly introduced and meticulously translated edition of On Pain, scholars will have access to a key Juenger text, which demonstrates his uncanny ability not only to analyze the ruptures and crises brought about by modernity in his day, but also to anticipate world-historical phenomena that critical social theory still grapples with in the twenty-first century."--Elliot Neaman, Professor of History, University of San Francisco, and author of A Dubious Past: Ernst Juenger and the Politics of Literature after Nazism

"Juenger represents a way of thinking about those things we fear the most....This excellent translation introduces readers to a work of primary importance that will open a new perspective on human experience to all who read it in this volume."--Marcus Bullock, Professor Emeritus of English, The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and author of The Violent Eye: Ernst Juenger's Visions and Revisions on the European Right

"Until Telos Press's newly translated edition of Juenger's On Pain, there has been no clear-cut introduction to this, his vital critique of social liberalism and the culture of modernity, for scholars of literary, military, and intellectual history. Important yet contentious, On Pain offers a perfect entry point for readers unfamiliar with Juenger the political essayist, focusing upon such issues and ideas as torture and terror, horror and affliction."--John Armitage, Principal Lecturer of Media & Communication, Northumbria University, United Kingdom, and Founder and Co-Editor of Cultural Politics

"In On Pain, Ernst Juenger shifts a code word of modern subjectivity, derived from Nietzsche and Baudelaire, into the realm of phenomenological objectivity. His 'pain' no longer emphasizes the liberal gesture of 'me, me,' but rather the affirmation of the anonymous condition of the soldier in modern war and the worker in industrial production.... Unique insight into the cruel phenomena of the twentieth century and pre-fascist impulses coalesce in a gaze both analytic and fantastic."--Karl Heinz Bohrer, Professor of Aesthetics and European Literature, University of Bielefeld ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Pain will show you who you are
Ernst Jünger requires two translations. One from German to English, the second from English to understandable English. I mean this literally. E.J. was without a doubt one of the most brilliant literary minds of the 20th century (which he lived through in its entirety): he was capable not only of compressing enormously complex thoughts and ideas into arresting single sentences, but occasionally of writing prose so beautiful it took on the quality of poetry. However, he was also frequently turgid, opaque, digressive and vague, so that reading his works often required great concentration and patience, not to mention a willingness to sift through those flaws to find what might be called the ores of his meaning. It is possible to read a Jünger book through without actually grasping just what the author wanted to say (Aladdin's Problem confounds me to this day), and this explains partially why "On Pain", a 47 page essay, has 47 pages of forwards and introductions in its vanguard. It is a great and important read, but it is not an easy one.

I say "partially explains" because the other reason Jünger's essays are always prefaced with massive introductions by academics is that he is considered one of the most dangerous writers ever to pick up a pen. His reputation as "the intellectual Godfather of Fascism" demands that legions of scholars feel obligated to hurl their twopenny bits of disclaimer before he is allowed to speak. Jünger's works are presumed, by those who presume to be smarter than you, to be something unreadable unless you've been told how to feel about them beforehand. I remember reading a forward to On the Marble Cliffs which violently attacked E.J. because he admittedly "lacked the capacity for hatred", by far the strangest criticism I've ever heard. It is precisely Jünger's incapacity for ordinary human emotions which allowed him to write the way he did...but I guess that's the problem. His ideas, his conclusions about existence, his particular way of viewing the world, are regarded by a great many people as simply too dangerous to be tolerated, which goes a long way to explaining why most of his works have never been translated, and why the few that have are always so unreasonably expensive or hard to lay ahold of.

"On Pain" is a deceptive title, and here again we come to the issue of translation, which is noted by the translator himself in his forward. This is not a book about the sensation of physical pain, but rather a metaphysical analysis of the changing relationship between human beings and suffering in the broadest sense of that word. In "On Pain", Jünger, who was writing in 1934, and whose outlook was shaped by his combat experiences as a storm trooper in the First World War, posits that mankind is turning away from the values of burgeois morality - saftey, security, ease, comfort, individualism - and becoming harder, more disciplined, and less individual. The new man defines himself via struggle, self-sacrifice, and the ability to withstand pain in all its forms, physical, emotional and otherwise. Jünger likens this evolving consciousness of man to a photographic lens, which gazes upon the most gut-wrenching horror in total objectivity, unmoved by pity or emotion of any kind. He also maintains that his mentality, the conservative mentality, is born out of an acceptance that pain is unavoidable and, in certain mediums, beneficial. Discipline, for example, is "the way man maintains contact with pain." He notes that during the "enlightened" i.e. liberal era, a "good" face was "nervois, pliant, changing, and open to the most diverse kind of influences and impulses." In '34, however (with the Nazis in power in Germany, Communists in Russia, Fasicts in Italy, etc.) the human face is undergoing a "hardening" which brings to mind soldiers of the old Prussian Army, that "stronghold of heroic virtues." What causes this physical manifestation of the inner hardening of the human soul, Jünger writes, is "the imposition of firm and impersonal rules and regulations." Humanity, he believes, has galvanized itself in imitation of the unfeeling, destructive machines he has created, and thus taken a step to become more machine than man.

At the heart of "On Pain" is Jünger's rejection of what we today would call "Western values." America is the stronghold of the pleasure-loving super-individual, who no longer feels much in the way of responsibility, and whose main purpose in life, other than experiencing pleasure, is in the acquisition of money and objects. But it is not the only country to hold these "values", and they are precisely what Jünger wanted to destroy. "On Pain" is, in essence, a gleeful ringing-in of what he thought was a new era, one which shovels dirt over the corpse of bourgeois liberalism. And indeed, as an indictment of "moderate" and "liberal" thinking it is devastating, the moreso because Jünger was not a Nazi. (Indeed, he saw with remarkable prescience that a society founded on the values of the machine could lead to ruin. "One graps how an enormous organizational capacity can exist alongside a complete blindness vis-à-vis values, belief without meaning, discipline without legitimacy.") Rather, it he is simply unwilling to accept that a fat belly, a full wallet and a silk cushion are the highest ideals of human existence. Just as The Storm of Steel committed the ultimate academic sin in refusing to view war as an unqualified evil, finding in it "an incomparable schooling of the heart", "On Pain" compounds that sin by maintaining that the measure of a man lays in his capacity to withstand pain.

Viewed as prophecy, "On Pain" is faulty as of now, but one can already see in certain places in the world a deep-seated rejection of "Western values" and a desire to define life in terms of the acceptance of suffering rather than in its avoidance. Radical Islam, for example, views the individual as of no consequence except in his relation to the struggle, the struggle itself as waged without mercy or restraint, and death as simply the price of devotion to the faith. Terrorism is a cult of pain as Jünger defines the word, and if we see it in those terms the magnitude of the task of defeating it becomes clear: one of many reasons why "On Pain" remains relevant after 76 years.

Unique
Ernst Jünger has always been somewhat of anomaly. His worldview was a wild and peculiar hybrid of totalitarianism, nationalism, conservatism, existentialism, magical realism, psychedelic experimentalism, traditionalism, emotional masochism and ironically a type of modernism and proto-technocracy. At odds with more palatable versions of European conservatism being bantered about at the time (Spengler, Evola, Hamsun, Heidegger, Rosenberg, et al) Jünger happily remained an enigma mistrusted by by both the right and the left, concurrently, for most of his long life. His cult status afforded him a wide variety of supporters and his reputation as a dilettante endeared him even to those who could never quite figure him out.

One specific aspect of Jünger's eccentric weltanschauung comes to the forefront in his influential fringe essay, "On Pain" - and it is the one he was most criticized for; the submission of optimism, individualism and liberty for the sake of pain (in both the figurative and literal sense).Jünger imagined the body politic prostrating to a highly idealized violence that would both dehumanize and liberate simultaneously. The warrior was to exist not just for the sake of war, but for the process of war.Unlike Nietzsche's energetic Übermensch however, Jünger's soldier was to never lay down his arms to ring in a new age, a new aristocracy. No enlightenment. Only pain.

"On Pain" is an illuminating peak into the nihilism and chaos that had leaked into conservative philosophical and literary thought as Germany sank into National Socialism. At best we might declare that in "On Pain" we have a unique if somewhat linear view of a culture in the midst of an identity crisis, staggering under the weight of its own spiritual and moral exhaustion.

David Durst's introduction to "On Pain" is enlightening (if pedantic) and somehow manages to make Jünger seem a bit more influential than he was.In an effort to bring new relevance to "On Pain however, Durst draws weak conclusions between modern day suicide bombings and Jünger's fantastical ideas about the reduction of the personality for the sake of a mechanistic, life-defying violence. Islamism's "Martyrdom culture" (more realistically interpreted as a communal expression of desperation) as understood by Orientalists such as Matthias Küntzel has only a superficial resemblance to 20th Century European militarism ("Long Live Death").For the "shahid" or martyr, death is welcomed in defense (jihad) of the Muslim community and never approaches anything nearly as authoritarian, as spiritually anemic, as ritualistic or as empty as Jünger's lionized breed of automated soldier.

Beyond this shortcoming the book is worth reading for anyone interested in better understanding how one peripheral thinker helped shape both pre-war and post war German identity.

On Pain
Excellent, yet short, treatise criticizing liberal bourgeois ideals of safety and security.While it is easy to see what the Nazis might have gotten from this, it also has to be understood in the context of the German Lost Generation writings.While Remarque and Junger are pretty far apart, there is the common theme that the middle class values had devalued the comradeship and sufferings of the Front (see Remarque's The Road Back).While Remarque kept his ideas in the novel form, Junger was wiling to explore these in a Nietzsche-inspired philosophy.The translation is OK, though it could use more notes in the text.Klunky terms such as "lumpen-proletariat" need some explanation.Also, the intro which attempts to make the work "relevant" by reference to modern terrorism is just a mess.Skip it for the translator's intro and then to the text.

A chilling glimpse into the heart of the cult of courage, death, and murder that was overtaking Nazi Germany
First written and published in 1934, On Pain is controversial and literary prize-winning German veteran Ernst Junger's philosophical treatise that gives astonishing insight into not only German society a year after Hitler's rise to power, but also into similarly destructive societal ideologies, such as those espoused by terrorists. In "On Pain", Junger devalues the liberal emphasis on such things as liberty, security, ease, and comfort, suggesting that the measure of manhood lies in one's ability to endure pain, suffering, and sacrifice. Junger forecasts a new type of man, fearless of pain, with a virtually sociopathic ability to treat themselves and others harshly, combined with the evolution of ever stronger war weapons, who would be destined to bring about the atrocities of World War II. A chilling glimpse into the heart of the cult of courage, death, and murder that was overtaking Nazi Germany, "On Pain" deserves to be studied under the principle of knowing one's enemy. It should be noted that the author himself would later (in 1939) write an allegorical novel criticizing Hitler's regime.
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Product DescriptionIn The Glass Bees the celebrated German writer Ernst Juenger presents a disconcerting vision of the future. Zapparoni, a brilliant businessman, has turned his advanced understanding of technology, and strategic command of the information and entertainment industries, into a discrete, and seemingly benign, form of global domination. But Zapparoni is worried that the scientists he depends on might take his secrets to a rival. He needs a chief of security, and Richard, a veteran and war hero who has fallen on hard times, is ready. But when Richard arrives at the beautiful country compound that is Zapparoni's headquarters, he finds himself subjected to an unexpected ordeal--one for which nothing he has ever known has prepared him. Soon he is led to question his past, his character, and even his senses. When The Glass Bees was first published in 1960, Juenger's German critics dismissed the book's vision of the future as without contemporary relevance. Today, however, that future seems something very much like the present we now know. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A QUIETLY PERCEPTIVE NOVEL
I gather when this novel came out, it was widely dismissed as irrelevant. It was probably out of sync with the contemporary German political sensibility with political parties that assured everyone that they were democratic and centrist.Given Jungers political history, I suspect a lot of people weren't all that eager to hear his reflections on contemporary society.Part of the books power comes from the fact that while you can seeit as a withering critique of the shallowness of contemporary society ,it's calm and rather good natured.This is no Celine style screed.Mostly , Captain Richard tells you about himself and meditates on the way we live now.It is very German with a romantic fixation on authenticity and alienation.Yet it manages to be "light".That is the key to it's success.You are reading a philosophical novel of some real depth, yet you never feel your being hit over the head with poorly digested philosophy.Junger was an amazing man ( if you doubt that read STORM OF STEEL as well).It's apparent from this novel that he was also a remarkably subtle writer.

A Possible Vision of the Future
This is certainly a fascinating read. Junger's vision of the future feels possible, there is a world weariness about his character's views, ideas and memories. The narrator mourns the simpler world, the world in which the calvary charged into battle, when men fought a known enemy. The war of our modern age, as written about by Junger in this philosophical novel, is just a war of distances, pressing buttons, eliminating your opponent without seeing them.

The novel essentially takes place in a day. We follow the thoughts, memories, dreams of a man long discharged from the army, searching for employment in a world filled with robots and other inventions. The world is strongly amoral, these robots entertain, have replaced actors and become the world's source of entertainment. The soldier, through the help of a former colleague, has an interview with a brilliant businessman - a Bill Gates meets Warren Buffet-like character named Zapparoni. Richard, the war veteran is needed to be head of security. This Zapparoni fears his inventors will give away his secrets.

This is more a novel of ideas as opposed to situations. Richard recalls men he went to school with, former soldiers he knew and hung around with after the wars. He reflects on the past and the present. It is not plot-driven and much of the interview between the narrator and the business men happen between the memories and thoughts of Richard. It is a reflective novel, pensive, melancholic but hopeful in some sense.

If you enjoy the Orwell or Huxley, bear in mind this is not a story of scenes, there is no real plot other than a man going to an interview. It is more of a snapshot of a man's life in a possible future world. Considering Junger lived to the age of 102, and this novel was written in the '50s', one wonders what he thought about the world on his deathbed in the late 1990's.

Technology v. Humanity
A wonderful work by Junger.An interesting contrast to his On Pain.I see three basic themes running through the work.First is what Man is doing to himself through ever increasing technological improvements. Junger first points out the beauty of the accomplishments, but then emphasizes their sinister destructiveness.The second theme is that of how this has changed the very essence of mankind.The former cavalryman, imbued with honor and humaneness, becomes a mere mechanic with the advent of the tank and has little use in the new age.Finally, Junger seems to really emphasize the importance of our formative experiences in shaping our selves.Again and again, he comes back to the education given by the cavalry instructor to his young charges and this helps the protagonist through the puzzles set forth by Zapparoni.While not a science-fiction work, it does have hints of Philip K. Dick or the Asimov robot stories .Not the easiest of reads, but still accessible and relevant.Beautifully translated.

Prophetic
THE GLASS BEES is an interesting, even fascinating book. It isn't necessarily an easy one to read, but then again, Ernst Jünger isn't known for his light touch with a pen. Like a lot of German authors, he writes in the "romantisch-pathetisch" style that translates into English rather clumsily, and makes frequent, somewhat rambling digressions which often go on for many pages and challenge the reader's patience. Unlike many of his countrymen, however, he is also capable of writing outbursts of prose so beautifully put together they sound like poetry and remain stuck in the mind forevermore. For this reason, and for his keen observations on life and the human condition, I am always willing to wade into Jünger's works, even when I know it will be heavy going.

THE GLASS BEES is something of a prophetic book, straddling the line between science-fiction and alternate history. Written in the mid-1950s, it foretold many aspects of modern life, most notably the rise of super-corporations led by brilliant but morally ambiguous men, the life-changing effects of technology, and the shift in moral climate that come about as a result of these things. The protagonist, Richards, is an ex-officer looking for work in a postwar economy that views him as something of an anachronism. Instilled with the classic military virtues, but lacking the ruthlessness and unscrupulousness which seems to define the modern man, Richards is practically starving when an old comrade sets up with a job interview with Zapparoni, a sort of cross between Howard Hughes, Henry Ford, Bill Gates and Walt Dinsney. Zapparoni is the brain of a corporate empire whose artificially intelligent, labor-saving machines have revolutionized both everyday life and the concept of entertainment, and his public image is of a charitable, child-loving, benificent old man. Richards, however, has heard more ominous things about Zapparoni: to wit, that he is really a monomaniacal control freak who crushes his corporate rivals into paste and terrorizes his own employees into slavelike obedience, "disappearing" anyone who becomes inconvenient. Richards, however, is desperate to provide for his beloved wife and marches grimly into Zapparoni's compound, reflecting as he tours the facilities on the tectonic changes in society which have occurred in his lifetime. Between audiences with the coldly enigmatic titan, Richards makes a number of jarring discoveries , not the least of which is that he cannot outrun the values instilled in him by his military academy training. The question then becomes twofold: will he leave the compound alive after what he has discovered, and if he does, can he find a place in a world where profit-motive, amorality and lust for power have replaced duty, honor and tradition?

THE GLASS BEES is undoubtedly a strange book, and it is arguable that if Jünger's prose style were less digressive and turgid his observations and questions would have been clearer and easier to understand. However, this does not change the fact that those observations and questions, penned fifty years ago, are not only relevant in today's world but actually crucial. The increasing power of corporations, ominous as that may be, is nothing compared to the way their "values" of Machiavellianism, greed and amorality have become the values of countless millions of people. On the other hand, the desire of scientists to play god just for the sake of it, which Jünger alludes to by showing us Zapparoni's mechanical bees, is not merely a warning about the threat technology poses to the ordinary man (who increasingly finds himself redundant in the workplace) but of the dangers of doing things simply because they can be done, without ever stopping to ask if they should be.

Interesting Prophecy
Ernst Junger died at the age of 102 in 1997. However interest in The Glass Bees (originally published in 1957) is more a credit to the book's prescience than its extraordinarily long-lived author. In the novel, the head of a multinational animation studio develops a new variety of movies using lifelike automatons indistinguishable from real actors. The glass bees of the title are his newest gizmos, as small as bees yet outperforming what they mimic, recreating and specializing themselves until their evolution races past their creators' control. More a meditation than a novel, this work airs the views of its narrator, a former cavalry officer obsessed with the ravages of modernity, specifically the way it makes our lives easier and more unpleasant. More ease, the old soldier says, has made us more prone to complain instead of less. While it's impossible to outline all the ideas in the officer's heady ruminations, they have a common theme: he was better off when his work was real.
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Product DescriptionA Dubious Past examines from a new perspective the legacy of Ernst Jnger (1895-1998), one of the most fascinating figures in twentieth-century German intellectual life. From the time he burst onto the literary scene with The Storms of Steel in the early 1920s until he reached Olympian age in a reunited Germany, Jnger's writings on a vast range of topics generated scores of controversies. In old age he became a cultural celebrity whose long life mirrored the tragic twists and turns of Germany's most difficult century.Elliot Neaman's study reflects an impressive investigation of published and unpublished material, including letters, interviews, and other media. Through his analysis of Jnger's work and its reception over the years, he addresses central questions of German intellectual life, such as the postwar radical conservative interpretation of the Holocaust, divided memory, German identity, left and right critiques of civilization, and the political allegiances of the German and European political right. A Dubious Past reconceptualizes intellectual fascism as a sophisticated critique of liberal humanism and Marxism, one that should be seen as coherent andfor a surprising number of contemporary intellectualsall too attractive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

the Best book on Junger
Though Ernst Junger is one of the most controversial intellectuals in the 20th century , he is barely known in the United States and more over he is often wrongfully associated with Nazis and even accused of being an anti-semite ,which he was centainly not. The book certainly shed a light on the unique specimen among the 20th century intellectuals as well as shows there was no one committeed more self contradiction that Junger. Although the book is on the Junger's intellectual development and oeuvre , the author also covers social, political, and literary milieu Junger was located in .

Also, the author also tackles how Junger's writing continously become the fountainhead of all sort of radical right wing parties andother esoteric melange of fascists. This is a very enlightening book and welcome edition on the thin number of bibliography that deals with one of the most fascinating personae in the 20th century.

Fascinating Book
This intellectual biography of Jünger is a must read for anyone interested in European cultural history. Jünger is barely known here in the U.S., but Neaman's book will hopefully stir a dialogue about German fascistintellectuals. Neaman poses a provocative question: what if fascistintellectuals should be taken seriously and not dismissed as ideologues orsycophants? This book gives a number of complex and thought-provokinganswers to that question. It is beautifully written and very sophiscated.First rate!
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Great start, confusing the rest of the way
Anyone who reads Junger outside of Storm of Steel knows that the plot is not really all that important as opposed to what he has to say about life/philosophy/issues.I fully expected this with Aladdin's Problem, and, in fact, got what I expected for the first third of the book.However, I have to say, even for a Junger novel, the point was so buried in the midst of the layers of thinking, that I really lost what he intended to do.Too bad, as the beginning was really awesome...

Hmmmm
Don't mistake me. I love Ernst Jünger. The depth and multifacity of his intellect, the sheer breadth of his life-experience, his tireless worth-ethic and his awe-inspiring gift for writing lyric prose are unrivaled anywhere, in any culture. Take the ten most interesting and talented people you know, combine them...and you have an honest tenth of the extraordinary man that Jünger was. War hero. Adventurer. Writer. Metaphysician. Botanist. Entomologist. "Godfather of Fascism." Enigma.

Having said that, this novel went almost entirely over my head, and I can't believe I'm the only one who is still rubbing his scalp over the experience. The story in a nutshell is this: the narrator, Frederich Baroh, is an East German soldier of noble blood who, having experienced the delights of communism firsthand, defects to the West at the first opportunity he gets. In Berlin the rather contemplative and brooding Baroh reconnects with an uncle in the mortuary business, marries, and realizing the impermenent and fluxuating nature of the modern world - which cannot even promise that those laid to rest will not have to be exhumed should their cemetaries get paved over in favor of a new highway - eventually founds a necropolis, a "city of the dead" called Terrestra. The promise of Terrestra is that the remains of the dead will never be disturbed, and will be tended to and cared for until the end of time. The concept becomes a huge hit, and Baroh very wealthy. However, he complains throughout the book of a "problem" which often manifests in physical symptoms of pain and discomfort, and which he never really identifies, but seems to be related to the idea of the modern world. The majority of the book is spent grappling with the half-identified "problem" and it ends without either unveiling the problem or offering a real solution.

Baroh's problem, insomuch as I grasp it, is related to the fact that the modern world lacks any foundation - "opinions preceed ideas" as he puts it, and its impermence leads to a longing for permenence (hence Terrestra) which is probably just an illusion, which in turn leads to more suffering...a vaguely Bhuddist idea. Also, that mankind has unleashed energies (like the genie in Aladdin's lamp) which he can barely control and which he doesn't fully understand ("Our lamp is made of uranium.") And finally, that the rise of technology (hand in hand with the decline of spirtualism) has left a void in the human heart. A telling passage, rather typical of Jünger's prose style: "People feel that pure power and the enjoyment of technology leave them unsatisfied. They miss what used to be angels and what angels gave them."

And yet, having read the book about three times, that's as close as I can get to its thesis. The novel opens strongly, and is especially brilliant when detailing the horrible atmosphere of fear, suspicion and paranoia that marked East Germany, but the closer E.J. himself gets to his point, the more the point recedes, obscured by long digressions and obscure references. Jünger's great strength as a writer is his ability to say something earth-shakingly profound or evocatively beautiful in a single sentence; his great weakness (in my opinion), is his tendency to pummel the reader with turgid metaphysical ramblings. Many passages had me feeling exhausted when I finished them, and others sent my mind wandering so that I turned the page without really reading a word. ALADDIN'S PROBLEM is only 126 pages, but it feels like 600. And when it abruptly ended, I said, out loud, "What the F---?"

So at the risk of being the only reviewer too stupid to get it, I have to say...I didn't quite get it. And yet, I'd have to recommend the book, because Jünger's special gift is passages that are deeply profound yet oddly lyrical, such as: "Exploitation is inevitable; without it no state, no society, indeed, no mosquito can exist. It has endured and tolerated for centuries, often barely noticed. It can become anonymous; one is no longer exploited by princes, but by ideas; slaves and masters exchange faces....The important thing is to assign evil to the past, to the unenlightened times, and in the present, to the enemy."

Truer words were never spoken. If only the rest of the book were as clear.

Modern Man's Nakedness Exposed
Ernst's Junger's "Aladdin's Problem" is a short, but brilliant, expose of the spiritual disease eating the West alive and a concise statement of the author's alleged solution.

The cultural critique takes hold beneath the guise of a short retrospective memoir written in the 1980's by an East German army officer who has defected to the West and who eventually makes a quiet career in the mortuary services industry. He does well at this, until one day inspiration strikes - he decides to revive the ancient practice of interring the dead in "cities" of their own. He searches for a site for his universal necropolis, and settles on Cappadocia (in Turkey). The project, called "Terrestria", becomes wildly successful.However, as it drags on, the narrator becomes increasingly ill, until events reach a climax with the mysterious appearence of a sage who will impart wisdom to him.

The meaning? Aladdin was a poor boy who gained great power. Or more accurately, he was a poor boy who gained a lamp with a demon in it that had great power and was bound to do his will. The underlying comparison between the Middle Eastern legend and the modern West is clear. The "Problem" alluded to in the title is that of technological nihilism. We Westerners, and by extention many other peoples around the globe, are in possession of technologies that put terrible forces at our command; Aladdin's problem - "What do I do with the demon whose might I barely control?" - is our problem. Whether Junger's solution was acceptable is more than I can right now say. But this book is as artful a diagnosis of the Western world's illness as you will find anywhere else.

A slim masterpiece
This book is an absolute masterpiece.I rank it with the greatest short fiction of Dostoyevsky, Hamsun, Unamuno.It is the last novel of the writer whom the next century will regard as a monument of thetwentieth--after all, he lived 102 years and was active all the whileproducing fictional and philosophical creations of unusual originality. Healso kept a diary through the decades, and when he died at the beginning of1998 one obituary called him "the chronicler of a century ofhorrors."

ALADDIN'S PROBLEM is a slim volume, exceptionally terse,cryptic and understated even by Jnger's standards.It begins with briefmeditations on growing old and flowers almost imperceptibly into the storyof a funeral assistant who, troubled by the emptiness of modern life andthe power of the forces above us ("Aladdin's problem"), conceivesone of the most fantastic ideas for permanence in human history.You willstop in amazement when you discover it.From this point on he moves into amystical realm with the aid of a suddenly appearing guru.

Perhaps I'vealready told too much, but this book is written so precisely that you willsavor every word and thrill at the author's world-conception as it builds.Jünger's art is so much his own that you quickly understand that you aredealing with a truly independent mind.

Marsilio Publishers is performinga great service for American culture by publishing English translations ofJnger's works.It is a project on the level of publishing Jorge Borges inEnglish in the 1960's.Let us hope that they will do an edition ofJnger's astonishing anti-utopian novel,THE GLASS BEES, which has been longout of print in translation.
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For most of his life, Ernst Jünger, one of Europe’s leading twentieth-century writers, has been controversial. Renowned as a soldier who wrote of his experience in the First World War, he has maintained a remarkable writing career that has spanned five periods of modern German history. In this first comprehensive study of Jünger in English, Thomas R. Nevin focuses on the writer’s first fifty years, from the late Wilhelmine era of the Kaiser to the end of Hitler’s Third Reich. By addressing the controversies and contradictions of Jünger, a man who has been extolled, despised, denounced, and admired throughout his lifetime, Ernst Jünger and Germany also opens an uncommon view on the nation that is, if uncomfortably, represented by him. Ernst Jünger is in many ways Germany’s conscience, and much of the controversy surrounding him is at its source measured by his relation to the Nazis and Nazi culture. But as Nevin suggests, Jünger can more specifically and properly be regarded as the still living conscience of a Germany that existed before Hitler. Although his memoir of service as a highly decorated lieutenant in World War I made him a hero to the Nazis, he refused to join the party. A severe critic of the Weimar Republic, he has often been denounced as a fascist who prepared the way for the Reich, but in 1939 he published a parable attacking despotism. Close to the men who plotted Hitler’s assassination in 1944, he narrowly escaped prosecution and death. Drawing largely on Jünger’s untranslated work, much of which has never been reprinted in Germany, Nevin reveals Jünger’s profound ambiguities and examines both his participation in and resistance to authoritarianism and the cult of technology in the contexts of his Wilhelmine upbringing, the chaos of Weimar, and the sinister culture of Nazism.Winner of Germany’s highest literary awards, Ernst Jünger is regularly disparaged in the German press. His writings, as this book indicates, put him at an unimpeachable remove from the Nazis, but neo-Nazi rightists in Germany have rushed to embrace him. Neither apology, whitewash, nor vilification, Ernst Jünger and Germany is an assessment of the complex evolution of a man whose work and nature has been viewed as both inspiration and threat.

The Godfather on Trial
Ernst Juenger is often referred to by academics as "the Godfather of
fascism." According to such critics, Juenger, who in his 103 years of living
(1895 - 1998) was among many things a metaphysicist-philosopher, decorated
combat soldier, accomplished amateur botanist and entymologist, world
traveller, and last but not least a prolific diarist, essayist, andnovelist, paved
the way for Hitler and the Nazis with a series of ultra-nationalist, "war glorifying"
books written from 1920 - 1925. Because Juenger's battlefield credentials were impeccable (he won the Pour le Merite or "Blue Max", the legendary medal held by, among others, the Red Baron and Rommel), because his verdict on war was "contra Remarque" (that is, drew a very different conclusion about war than did ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT) and because his books had a such a widespread influence on their readers, he is often charged with romanticizing the Great War, rationalizing aggressive German nationalism, and generally being an enemy ofdemocracy, liberalism and pacifism altogether. Although he was never a Nazi, he hasbeen tarred with the Nazi brush to the extent that many of his works continue to be unofficially suppressed, while others are so prohibitively priced they may as well be banned. As a result, Juenger exists in a weird literary twilight: his works are universally aknowledged, much decorated and frequently condemned, but often damn hard to come by. Critical thinkers who want to form their own opinion of the man face an uphill battle.

In writing ERNST JUENGER AND GERMANY: INTO THE ABYSS author Thomas Nevin attempts to answer the charges against E.J. by making a thorough study of his
works from the period 1914 - 1945. Claiming neutrality, Nevin describes his
own book as "neither apology, whitewash nor villification" but simply an
honest, unpartisan examination. By and large, he succeeds.

Juenger, Nevin claims, was not a fascist bullyboy but a thoroughly
analytical pagan, a man who saw, or sought, deeper meanings in everyday
events, and who was chronically fascinated by the processes of nature and human existence. This fascination entailed an understanding that fire and destruction have their
place in the symbiant circle of life, and explain a good deal of his controversial and much-attacked view that war was not an exercise in pointless butchery, but as Juenger put it, "a schooling of the heart." In other words, a sort of winnowing process, by which "a new race ofman" could be produced, one who was "galvanized" by trial and had inculcated the values of the front-line soldier: obedience, discipline, courage, selflessness, and immunity to pain. Failing to toe the antiwar line of writers like Remarque, Juenger fell afoul of communists, liberals, and left-wingers generally, and the more he attempted to clarify his position, the more trouble he generally found himself in.

This predicament was due in part to Juenger's writing style, which despite many beautiful characteristics is often turgid, rambling, and nebulous, thus allowing critics to read what they pleased between his lines, and to latch on to phrases which were seemingly damning, such as one notorious passage, written in '44 or thereabouts, in which he recounts an Allied bombing attack on Paris, viewed "while he drank a glass of Burgundy with strawberries in it." The situation was exacerbated, Nevin tells us, by Juenger's permenent emotional distance from the events around him: whether witnessing a battle or a sunset, a field of sunflowers or an execution, Juenger's writing tone is essentially the same. To a liberal mind, Nevin implies, this is completely unforgivable.

Nevin is by no means an apologist for Juneger's views, many of which he finds confounding, impenetrable, or completely impractical; but he has no patience for Juenger's critics, the majority of whom have allowed their personal political agendas to color their judgements, and he bravely takes the position that few are in a position to render a verdict on Juenger's service, albeit slight, to the Nazi regime. Like Orwell, he inists on demanding of would-be judges: "In such-and-such a circumstance, what would YOU do?"

Nevin's work has some problems. For one, his writing style is strongly reminiscent of Juenger's: that is to say, amidst many penetrating and even fascinating passages there are masses of overwritten and extremely pompous erudition, written in the language of academia - i.e., with thesaurus close at hand. Words like "boutade", "remontade" and "clthonic" abound, along with phrases that seem almost Milleresque in their deliberate obscurity ("Biologized Hegelianism", "this insoucsiant, mountaintop calm of Zarathustra.") This makes some of the chapters tedious and some of Nevin's points too nebulous to define. At least for this humble reader.

All in all I would recommend Nevin's work despite its flaws. Juenger was, to paraphrase Hitler, an "invisible force who exerts unseen gravity" - his philosophy and writings were deeply influential on his times, and since "his times" spanned two centuries and many eras, he deserves to be read - and understood - on that basis alone.

Dr. Nevin is agreat man
Dr. Thomas Nevin is a great guy.Jim an I (my roommate) are students, and during the off hours, buds with the good professor.Tonight we went down to the Cleveland Cinematheque an saw the flick "Murderous Maids with the professor an another good man Mike Schneeberger(?).The movie wasn't bad, but I'll tell you one thing, from what I hear this book is ten times better.

Nevin's writing is like butter, tasty, smooth, and easily absorbed; yet intriguing and sophisticated, leaving you wanting more.But alas, when the book is finished, as when the bread gone, a great loss comes across the consumer; a loss that can only be cured with anotherNevin book or perhaps, more butter.

Product DescriptionTwo botanists living in a hermitage on a marble cliff find their way of life threatened by the murderous Foresters of the Campagne. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Multi-Layered and Difficult
I have the 1947 English translation by Stuart Hood, so I cannot say what changes were made for this Penguin edition.Maybe the first work of Juenger's later phase, where he is more interested in broader issues which are hidden in a symbolic narrative.The narrative itself is interesting, being a study in the advance of fascism, but the metaphors and symbolism are perhaps lost a bit in translation.I found myself frustrated at many turns, knowing that there was some hidden meaning on the page before me, but which was obscured--perhaps due to translation, time or lack of context.Still, an interesting book.I plan on revisiting after I've worked through more of Juenger's later works.

Nietzsche.
When this novel was published before World War II, it was immediately recognized as an attack on Hitler and the Nazi party. This was rightly so. But is Jünger's solution better?The clash depicted in this novel goes between the masters (the free) and the servants (the slaves).Jünger sides naturally with the masters (I prefer to die alone on the battlefield, than to vanquish with the servants).The servants are the nazis with their chief lumberjack Hitler, who try to impose their slave mentality on everybody.Jünger is a great admirer of wars. Why? Because in these dangerous circumstances the real masters, the real free can prove unmistakably who they are: courageous, natural leaders, morally and physically free men.Jünger is a formidable writer. His prose is breathtaking radiant, written with a stunning virtuosity (e.g. the attack of the bloodhounds), with amazing evocations of battle scenes.But for me, his message is fundamentally wrong: he sets war above peace.

a short note about the first customer review
Its wrong that the Magic Realism is a typical latin-american genre. In german literature after 1945 (even before the latin magic realism existed) we have a "Strömung" called "Magischer Realismus" - but its darker than the latin one. unfortunately the world didnt took notice about the german "Magischer Realismus" and forgot such great german-magic-realism authors like: Ernst Kreuder, Hermann Kasack, Kaschnitz, Langgässer, Hans Henny Jahnn, Frido Lampe ...Than, in the 60s, latin authors like Garcia-Marquez and Ruan Rulfo became famous and the hole world spoke about the "new sensation".so, when you like Jünger, you have to read one of these authors.

Beauty and the beast
(...) The author may have been a beast, but his prose is of utmost beauty.A wonderful specimen of magical realism, this novel rivals the best of Marquez.From a German standpoint, this typically Latin-American genre takes on a whole new spin.Even the fantastical is described with incredible precision.The thick symbolism explores whole new dimensions.Don't be blinded by the superpowered dogs or snake-taming boy.You only need to look as far as the flower collection of the botantist narrator.The geometries excrutiatingly detailed there echo throughout the entire book in a rich and subtle symbolism.On the Marble Cliffs is a work of genius.(...)

Another One to Save From the Out-of-Print Oblivion
EJ's "On the Marble Cliffs" is one of those literary classics that suffers from the reputation of its author.Because of his position as a German army official during the occupation of France in WWII, Junger isone of the more controversial authors of the century.He is also one ofthe best, but his work goes largely unread in the English-speaking world. Even today, people in the countries that made up the Allied powers lookupon all Germans of the time as Nazis; we seem unable to tell thedifference between party officials and Germans who were forced to do whatthey could considering the circumstances.However, this book- as well asJunger's unpublished-in-English diaries of WWII- tell the story of the partof Germany that resisted in the only way that it could."On theMarble Cliffs" is an allegorical account of what would eventuallybecome the great tragedy of the century.Some of the metaphors Junger usesare obvious.Some are extremely confused.However, the book's literarymerit shines through in every page.It is largely hailed as the onlyclassic produced under the Third Reich; and it is one of the few pieces ofliterary resistance that passed through the censors.Yet it has been outof print for years, and almost unattainable to anyone interested.To getmy copy, I had to talk to a store in Kentucky who had contact with a storein Canada that sold me a paperback copy for $30.This seems to be somewhatof a tragedy considering the value of the book.This situation is dueprimarily to a misunderstanding of Junger himself, which could easily beremedied if HIS BOOKS WERE STILL IN PRINT!
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It's not easy to describe a book like Ernst Jünger's A DANGEROUS ENCOUNTER. Is it a Jane Austenesque commentary on the suffocating social conventions of 19th Century Europe? A Conan-Doyle style murder mystery, set in Paris rather than London? Or a metaphysical treatise on the darker aspects of human nature, masquerading as a period novel?

I guess the answer is "all of the above." Because of that, and because Jünger's name is scarcely known to Americans despite his titanic status in Europe, it's going to be a chore to drum up a lot of interest in this book. It defies easy categorization, and it's written in such an unorthodox style, cheerfully violating nearly all the rules of conventional storytelling, that many readers will be baffled by its construction. Nevertheless, it bears reading if you are a fan of literary or historical fiction, philosophical musings on the human condition, or outside-the-box writing.

A DANGEROUS ENCOUNTER is the story of a number of different characters whose lives intersect over a single incident, set in motion by a rather evil-spirited old man named Ducasse. Once a wealthy and important figure in Parisian society, Ducasse has been marginalized by poverty, age and ill-health, to the point where his only real pleasure in life is in causing trouble for others. When he meets Gerhard zum Busche, a handsome but naïve and rather child-like young man attached German embassy, he quickly realizes he has a new pawn to play with. He deviously sets up zum Busche with an unstable married society woman named Irene Kargane, knowing that Kargane's husband, an officer in the French navy, is one of the more dangerous men in Paris. When Irene and Gerhard meet in an out-of-the way hotel, however, their liason is interrupted by a brutal murder that occurs on their doorstep, which may or may not have been committed by a transplanted Jack the Ripper. The would-be lovers are now in a precarious position; they are crucial witnesses to a grisly crime, but cannot testify lest their dalliance be discovered. Unfortunately for them, the murder draws the attention of a relentless police inspector with a sharp deductive brain and keen eye for human motivation named Dubrowsky, and his Dr. Watsonesque sidekick, Etienne. Before long the beans are spilled, and the cuckolded Captain Kargane goes looking for satisfaction with a pistol. And amidst all of this, the question remains: who committed the murder, and why?

ENCOUNTER is written in an unusual style, even for a noncomformist like Jünger. He introduces his characters sequentially, including some who enter the story quite late in the game, and constantly shifts the point-of-view, so that the whole tale is viewed from a dizzying array of perspectives, many of which seem only tangenitally focused on the story. As always, Jünger writes in a cooly metaphysical vein, with the principal character, Dubrowsky, a sort of ultraphilosophical Sherlock Holmes (right down to his intimate knowledge of his home-city and his occasional use his of cocaine) - relentless but oddly dispassionate in his pursuit of the guilty. (The book's best moments are generally to be found in the author's observations about human nature, especially the nature of criminals). E.J.'s reconstruction of late 1800s Paris is also quite impressive, not only in the physical sense, but in the way he conveys to the reader the complex, cumbersome and in some cases deadly social conventions of the era - the fact that Kargane despises his wife and bears Busche no ill-will for romancing her, yet coldly plans on killing the hapless German in a duel for the sake of his honor, does a great deal to capture the atmosphere of the period. Finally, the novel is relatively free of the weaknesses which plague E.J.'s other novels - turgid paragraphs, disjointed thinking, and weak transitions. This is not to say Jünger's writing style will please every reader, especially when it comes to his choice of endings, but he seems to have made a conscious effort here to make his often obscure work more approachable.

In sum, if you are looking for a novel which is truly "different" in character - unconventional, unusual and highly thoughtful, I would suggest A DANGEROUS ENCOUNTER. It may not exactly be dangerous, but it is interesting.
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Challenging, difficult, and fascinating.
Junger is an acquired taste.For Americans of a melliorist intent he comes hard.He requires focus and energy besides.

This book was finished when Junger was eighty two years old.In his youth he was an infantryman who received the Pour le Merite (the highest medal for valor) in Flanders.Even in great age he was a ferocious fellow indeed.An aristocrat to the core, he found the Nazis vulgar and blood thirsty, the antithesis of gentlemen, of whom and from whom nothing good could come.In "On the Marble Cliffs" he called them "flayers", flayers of men.

He watched a lot of changes in those first 82 years, and came to the conclusion that nothing good could come from hope in politics.He came to see freedom as being essentially internal to the individual and a private matter and not something power seeking persons (who make up governments, of course) can provide.To say that he did not believe politicians' promises is understatement.

Junger was vastly well read.His historical, literary, political, and philosophical references (used mostly as metaphor) are a treat (though I must have missed most of them).He had the true historical imagination.

Don't consider Eumesvil as "science fiction".It is more like poetry, with winding allegories, carefully chosen words, essentially compact, and reaches the reader on a level more basic than story telling.

Eumesvil is a truly important work.Dostoevsky examines human nature no more acutely than this.I have just finished by first reading and expect there will be many more.

A survival guide
This book takes the form of the ruminations of Manuel Venator, a bartender for a minor tyrant who rules a North African town sometime in the future. The writing style is fantastic. The otherworldly quality of what is being described is emphasized by the prose style, which is very matter-of-fact.

More than a fantasy or science fiction work, this is a fictionalized description of what it is to be an anarch (not to be confused with an anarchist), which is essentially one who is disengaged from his surroundings and operates under the maxim "non serviam" while not making any attempt to alter or destroy the power structure, understanding that to do so would be to only risk making things worse. In a sense, this is really an updated form of Epictetus' stoicism. This book can perhaps be seen as an Enchiridion for the third millenium.

The best Juenger's novel
Jünger is one of the most important writers of this century. A mix of Goethe, Hamann and Novalis on one hand, and of Chamfort,Joubert and the french moralist on the other. Soldier in both wars, friend of Heidegger, Brecht, Cioran and Scholem, scientist and writer, his life is alsmots asinteresting as his books. Unfortunaly his best book, his private journalfrom the II Wolrd War has not been translated into English.Anyway, Eumeswilis an excellent science -fiction novel with heavy philosophycalbackgrounds, mostly Nietzche, Heidegger, german romantics and OswaldSpengler.Juenger died two years ago when he was 102 years old.

Philospohical ruminations in a fictional setting.
Eumeswil has no easily discernable narrative, but rather a series of almost-episodes that trigger a series of philospohical ruminations by Martin Venator, the narrator.He observes power but removes himself fromit, describing himself as an anarch, responsible no one but himself, notjudging history or individuals. In doing so, he ends up serving the Condoras both a barkeep and as a collaborator.Our narrator doesn't see that bystanding aside from autocracy, he enables its perpetuation.He wouldrather spend hours in front of a historical simulation device called theluminar and working to create a little refuge in a nearby river delta,indicative of his remove from the world around him.Not an "airplanebook" by any means, but worthwhile as a glimpse as to how intellectcan convince itself to serve power.
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Should be 3 1/2 stars
I'll admit right off the bat I am a "Storm of Steel" guy.I read it first and was sucked right in.I picked this book up thinking it would prove more of the same but was quite mistaken.I believe the book has merit in that it explores a multitude of experiences and ideas he had perculating in his head.His ideas on the future warrior and the new wave of military hardware are rather uncanny and farseeing.It was enjoyable reading his ideas on leadership and know from personal experience he is right on.Irregardless the book is slow and choppy compared to "storm of steel" so if you intend to read this be prepared for the differences and enjoy the book for what it is.

Better than the other reviewers let on
If you're at all interested in the views of Right Wing Germans in the period between wars (it was penned in the early '20s), this is a good read.If you simply follow Junger, you'll also be interested in this, because it's exactly the sort of thing he was trying to disavow in his later years.

Junger throws in some action, some thoughts on leadership, day-to-day details from the front, and thoughts about how trench warfare evolved from 1914 to 1918.

Certainly the other reviewers are correct to assert this is a nationalist book.Particularly interesting to me is the fact that Junger seems to both disavow and embrace the 'Stab-in-the-back' myth that was so prevalent in Right Wing circles of the time.When he talks about the possibility that Germany will lose the war, he says the nation as a whole is to blame.Later, he mentions that the elements responsible for the loss should be jettisoned from German society.

I suspect he was all too happy to let people read the book either way.While I'm a fan of the man and everything he accomplished in a long and storied life, he was a pretty slippery character.That was true before the concept of the 'anarch' had been fully developed, and it's definitely on display here.

Also on display is his genuine love for battle as he experienced it, and a love of technology.His speculation on war machinery to come was of particular interest.One could read it as an anticipation of the helicopter.The roots for his later works, such as The Glass Bees and Aladdin's Problem are here, definitely, less the dream or trance-like qualities that color his post-WWII books.

This is Junger before he got burned by the ascent of the Nazis.This book amply documents why he was able to do what he wanted in occupied Paris, and why On the Marble Cliffs wasn't banned by the Nazis.I don't mean to smear him as a true-believer, but he did sow the seeds for the ascent of the NSDAP through his contributions to the post-war marketplace of ideas.He was definitely pro-Germany, pro-military, and anti-democratic.He wasn't a loyal Nazi, but he was definitely a Right Wing intellectual who was proud to wear these attitudes on his sleeve when it mattered.

Thus, I thought this book was completely fascinating.I wish someone would release a new translation of Der Arbeiter, because I'm sure it's more of the same.

Confessions of a Storm Soldier
COPSE 125 was one of a quadrilogy of works Ernst Jünger wrote on his experiences as a storm trooper for Germany during the First World War. The most famous of these, of course, is THE STORM OF STEEL, which made him a celebrity, but COPSE 125 is a very different type of book, and it's no surprise to me that some who read and enjoyed STORM posted their disappointment here.

STORM was an "external" memior of Jünger's four years as a front-line soldier, a period which saw him wounded sixteen times and awarded with Prussia's highest decoration for bravery, the Pour le Merité, which was also awarded to Rommel and Richtofen. By "external" I mean that the book deals almost exclusively with what happened to Jünger during the war - what he saw, what he did, what was done to him. It did NOT record what he felt, and many who read it dismissed him as a blunted, cold-blooded automaton, incapable of real human feeling, and to this day (he died only recently, at 103) he is villified as the "Godfather of fascism" for glorifying war and rationalizing the unspeakable. In fact, Jünger was a remarkably sensitive man, and withheld his feelings about combat to make them the subject of his subsequent works (including the long essay, "War as an Inward Experience"); it seems his true "crime" was in failing to conclude that war was a complete evil ("Life can only assert itself in its own destruction", he writes) and it is probably no coincidence that his harshest critics are people who have never been shot at.

COPSE 125 is a battle memior of sorts, which Jünger wrote using the journal he kept during a stay at Pieseux-au-Mont in 1918, but it is not by any means a "combat" book. In fact, Jünger deliberately picked from his experiences a relatively quiet on the line to use as his source material. What he wanted to explore, among other things, was the effect of trench warfare on the human heart and soul, as well as the possible nature of war in the future, using both the successes and the failure of the German Army during the war as his learning tool. Anyone familiar with Jünger's novels knows that his prose style mingles brilliant, almost poetic prose with long, turgid, extremely German descents into philosophy, history and metaphysics, and COPSE 125 is no exception. Many of the passages are so beautifully written that they stick in your mind like an arrow, such as when he writes, "The meaning of life is not in the poor struggle for existence but the irresistible urge to power - and overwhelming power." Or, when discussing the perennial victory of fanaticism over the intellect, explains, "A sound opinion finds advocates, but no martyrs." Others are so dense and overwritten they are virtually impenetrable. And yet I would unhesitatingly say that while COPSE is no easy, breezy read, it is compelling enough that I have re-read it several times, and on each occasion gained some wisdom from its teachings.

Philosophy vs. Memoir
Storm of Steel, Junger's more famous WWI memoir, is an excellent book, capturing a young patriotic German's response to trench warfare.It's full of details of daily life in the trenches and has a particularly good passage of his involvement in the Kaiserschlacht offensive.By comparison, Copse 125, only contains a few pages of war memoir.The balance of the book is philosophical tract based on zealous nationalism.If you want to read several hundred pages of why Imperial Germany deserved to win the First World War and rule Europe, well, be my guest.

only for the serious
a reprint with poorly reproduced text. Its a good memoir from a German officer, with some ripping good bits. However, at least half or so is a lot of self reflection.

So if you are really into the German side of WW1 in a scholarly way iots a great source. If you just want cool tales of fighting pass it up.
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An academic's argument with Junger
This book is ostensibly about Ernst Junger's work, but it's not really about him. It's an argument with him, and it's completely pointless. Essentially, it reads as an American Academic preaching to his lefty choir about how Junger was wrong about, well, everything. Indeed, he goes so far as to call Junger out as some kind of mess-hall braggart re: his military experience. 7 wounds, and he's just talking out of his hat?

I'll tell you who I think is talking out of his hat... It's Bullock.

Writing a book that argues with someone from a different generation who lives in a different nation is pointless. You're speaking a very comfortable 'truth' to the small coterie of readers who agree with you. So what?

I'm used to reading treatments of Junger's work that read like this, because that's basically all you can get in English. There aren't a lot of his works in print, especially the early ones, so those of us interested can read foreign editions or read academic treatments of his work.

In the wake of the Bush years, with many conservatives having jumped ship over the abuses of the Right, I believe Junger's re-thinking his fascist abstractions in the face of Hitler's ascent is timely. If only the author could treat the wealth of material in an adult manner!

I don't expect a modern author to agree with Junger. Indeed, Bullock discusses the decline of the 'conservative intellectual' early on. I think it's a shame there are so few dissenting opinions in higher education, because I believe education should be more open to dissent than it is. That said, there are much bigger issues in American education to tackle, so I won't hold my breath waiting on a resolution for this one.

Again: I'm used to lefty authors judging his work, demeaning it, and otherwise whining about it. But this book is little more than a platform for the author's opinion. I felt like I was wading through paragraphs of Bullock's assertions, none of which were backed up by cited sources or experience. Instead, I was treated to standard issue secular humanism of the sort that assumes the moral high ground because 'all my friends agree, and they're the smartest people I know'. It's exactly the sort of feel-good socialism without sacrifice that drove me out of the liberal arts department.

With 100 pages to go, I decided it wasn't worth my time any longer. I hate bailing out on books like this, but... This one is hitting the recycle bin. I'd prefer to see the paper go to good use. This text is a waste of a tree.I can only hope it will be recycled as something useful, like toilet paper.

A thorough, but somewhat slanted approach to Junger
The place for a full review of this book is in an academic journal of some sort.-Consequently, this is not my task here.I'm limiting my critique to what I find most fascinating and controversial in the work, contained in the first chapter, The Prose of Apocalypse, where Bullock finds marked similarities between a passage of Junger's and Shelley's "Mount Blanc."Bullock (perhaps because he is a professor of German?) finds that Junger and his teutonic colleague Benjamin plumb greater depths than Shelley.Thus, for Bullock, what look at first to be similarities merely point to the greater depth of Junger's metaphysics.Here is the difference: Junger says, "...the unity and multiplicity of our so mysterious world are hidden"; while Shelley says, "The secret strength of things which governs thought, and to the infinite dome of heaven is a law, inhabits thee!And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea, if to the human mind's imaginings silence and solitude were vacancy?"The last question of Shelley's poem is clearly rhetorical and it is clear that Shelley sees a "secret stength of things" in this poem where Junger feels only only hidden, perhaps dark, mystery.-But this comparison, meant to show that Junger is the more profound, is hardly fair to Shelley and, in fact, sets the great English poet up as a foil.-What, if instead of "Mount Blanc," Bullock had chosen Shelley's ironic, despairing poem, "The Triumph of Life," unfinished because Shelley drowned himself before completion?Its images are darker by far than Junger's, a parade of grotesque twisted shapes ravaged by time, and Shelley's last line, after a lifetime and a mass of work delving into these dark metaphysical matters is heartshattering, " 'Then what is life?' I cried."-Bullock, in fairness to him, later in the book seems to imply not so much that the Germans gazed deeper into the abyss than a poet like Shelley.But that Junger's "auratic prose" is somehow better writing.The reader must, of course, be the judge of this.I personally find what Bullock calls (not altogether complimentarily) Shelley's attachment to the "sublime" and Junger's manly confrontation with the abyss a more than somewhat nonsensical and tendentious semantic wordplay.-Both men were interested in the sublime and both courageously confronted the abyss.-Bullock more or less admits this later on.-One should always be careful using terms like "the sublime" and "the abyss."They've been the subjects of so much academic doublespeak over the years that one hardly knows what one means by using them anymore.-Enough said, anyone interested in Junger (or Shelley, for that matter) should read this book.Anything that provokes thought and meditation is so rare these days.
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